Abstract

Thirty years ago Dr. Osler wrote, "Pneumonia is a self-limited disease, which can neither be aborted nor cut short by any means at our command." When I went to the Rockefeller Institute shortly afterwards, I said to myself, "Here, at least, is a wide open field. This is the most serious acute infectious disease with which physicians have to deal. Is it possible that nothing can be done to decrease the frightful mortality due to this malady? At any rate, we can attempt to obey St. Paul's injunction, 'Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.'" From that time